1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management system that can communicate with at least one image forming apparatus via a network and can perform management and maintenance for the image forming apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technique for managing an event including failure information, such as an error generated in an image forming apparatus, together with associated apparatus relevant information (e.g., environmental measurement values and setting values in the image forming apparatus).
2. Description of the Related Art
A management system for image forming apparatuses is a system that can manage an operational status of each image forming apparatus (e.g., a printer, a copying machine, and a multifunction peripheral). The management system not only manages operational status information collected from respective image forming apparatuses but also provides various services to each image forming apparatus according to its operational status. One of the services provided by the management system is dispatching a service engineer if an operator determines that it is necessary when an error notification is received from an image forming apparatus. In this case, the service engineer confirms a state of the failure while viewing an operational status of the image forming apparatus (i.e., an object for which the service engineer performs a maintenance work) before the service engineer goes to a setup place of the image forming apparatus. Information to be confirmed beforehand by the service engineer who performs a maintenance work as described above includes, in addition to the operational information of the image forming apparatus, attribute information of the image forming apparatus that relates to the failure (error or alarm).
The information may further include history of information (presence of sheets, rotation of gear, etc) from a sensor in a printer which can be stored upon finishing a print job. The history of the information can be later displayed to let the service engineer to identify the cause of the failure.
As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-148431, there is a conventional system that displays, if an error is generated, information necessary to perform maintenance work considering printer unique setup environmental conditions. In the case, the system displays error accompanying information (e.g., a character string indicating a sheet stock place in case of shortage of sheets) which can be set beforehand by a user as necessary information for the printer. The printer, when an error is generated, transmits error information and error accompanying information to a management apparatus. The management apparatus can display the received error accompanying information.
According to the above-described conventional technique, the image forming apparatus transmits accompanying information to the management apparatus in response to occurrence of each failure. However, the same failure may occur repetitively within a short period of time (e.g., several minutes) after the first failure occurs in the image forming apparatus. In such a case, if the image forming apparatus transmits accompanying information relating to a generated error to the management apparatus each time the error is generated, the management apparatus frequently receives the information whose content is similar or identical. For example, according to the above-described technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-148431, accompanying information is transmitted each time an error is generated. However, in a case where the same error occurs repetitively, the same accompanying information set beforehand by a user is transmitted a plurality of times, unnecessarily, in response to generated errors.
As a method for reducing an amount of information to be transmitted to the management apparatus, it may be desired to store previously transmitted information and, if presently acquired information has any difference in comparison with the already stored information, transmit the data relating to the presently acquired information to the management apparatus. However, recent image forming apparatuses include various built-in sensors from which numerous measurement values can be acquired. Accordingly, a large capacity of storage area is required for each image forming apparatus to store, as previously transmitted information, all of environmental measurement values and various setting values for the image forming apparatus.